Murphy Floor Speech On DHS Funding Fight: The American People Demand Action

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, on Wednesday took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to lay out why Democrats and Republicans must act now to rein in an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security engaging in daily, systematic violations of the law, that have sowed widespread chaos in our cities and left multiple American citizens dead. Murphy pushed his colleagues to condition funding for DHS on an overhaul of the agency's lawless, secret police enforcement practices, with serious accountability measures.

Murphy stressed Trump's panicked reshuffling of DHS leadership in Minneapolis is not sufficient to rein in the agency's lawlessness: "There's a lot of ink spilled over the last 24 hours about the administration's de-escalation in Minneapolis, substituting one leader for another… But if you talk to our colleagues from Minnesota, they will tell you that nothing has changed. Today is just like yesterday in a nursery school. Today, there's blinds down, recess canceled, signs on the door… Kids don't know what's going on as they are ushered in by escorts to their nursery school classroom, they are made to feel like prisoners inside. Why? Because there are masked, armed men hunting them."

Murphy reiterated Americans overwhelmingly support Democrats' stand against DHS' misconduct: "People all across this country are demanding that if we are going to fund the Department of Homeland Security, we only fund a department that is acting lawfully and morally…This seems to be a moment where the country has just decided that what's happening in Minneapolis is wrong. The country would like us to come together on a series of reforms that will make it less likely that there will be another murder in cold blood of an American citizen. And right now, we are on a pace for it to happen again… There are more ICE officers in Minneapolis than there are police officers. The police aren't even doing their job any longer, because all they do is respond to problems that are being created by untrained, unqualified ICE officers. I think we can find a way to come together on a set of reforms that the American people are demanding."

Ahead of the funding deadline, Murphy underscored Democrats are coming to the table with common-sense reforms that Republicans should support: "What we're talking about here [are] really reasonable things that, frankly, should unite Republicans and Democrats. I have a much longer list of reforms that I want. The illegality is just off the charts of the Department of Homeland Security, but I understand that we are not going to be able to get common ground on that long list. And so what we endeavor to do is put on the table three things that we can find common ground on, that we must find common ground on, because to defend this for Republicans position over the rest of this week, into next week, to be no reforms, no changes in how ICE operates. It's unsustainable. It is not close to where the center of this country is."

He made the case for making any DHS funding bill contingent on real accountability and constraints that put a stop to ICE's lawless chaos: "What we are asking is reasonable and impactful. What we are saying is that these roving patrols in Minneapolis, the profiling of people just based upon their skin color or their accent - the 'Show Me Your Papers' enforcement - has to end. ICE and CBP are fundamentally not trained to do that kind of work, just roaming the streets trying to find people who they believe to be in the country illegally."

He continued: "[And] no more secret police. This is the United States of America… We don't allow, in this country, masked, unidentified men to be wandering up to you on the street and ripping you into a car. We need masks off. We need body cameras on."

Murphy slammed DHS' outright refusal to cooperate with an independent investigation of Alex Pretti's killing: "We need accountability. Man, it looks like there was a crime committed. It looks like that was murder, but the only way you will know is if you have an impartial investigation and potentially prosecution, and that always happens at the state level. It can't be some whitewashed, secret process inside the Department of Homeland Security. No, our justice in the United States of America happens in public. It does not happen in private. We aren't Russia. We aren't Saudi Arabia. Justice is administered in a court of law through a process that people can see and that should apply to you whether you are an ICE officer or whether you are just a citizen of Minneapolis."

Detailing his own experiences at Texas immigration detention centers, where DHS has illegally stonewalled congressional oversight and accountability, Murphy continued: "Last week, I went down to Texas to inspect two facilities, one of which is [nicknamed] the baby prison, the baby jail. It's where they put the two-year-old kids. I didn't show up unannounced. I'm the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee that funds Homeland Security. We all have a constitutional right to do oversight, but I have the title. I have the responsibility.; And I gave them a day and a half notice, and I was still denied entry. Why? Because they're hiding something."

Murphy emphasized ICE's lawless, violent abuse is a national problem, which extends much further than Minneapolis: "I want you to understand that as much as we are watching Minneapolis, as much as we are feeling for those children locked in their nursery school classrooms today, fearing the bad men outside that are trying to take them away and send them to prison. It's not just Minneapolis… 30 people have died in ICE custody and detention in the last year…The country's not watching it like they're watching Minneapolis, but it's just as inhumane and it's just as illegal."

A full transcript of Murphy's remarks is available below.

MURPHY: Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate the remarks of my friend from New Jersey. Mine will sound very familiar. Listen, ICE is out of control right now. They're killing American citizens. They're endangering the safety of our cities, in particular, Minneapolis, and they're just lawless. This nation was horrified when they saw the video of Alex Pretti exercising his First Amendment rights, gunned down in cold blood, but I'll be honest, they were just as terrified by the response from the administration, almost within minutes before any investigation took place. This young man, an ICU nurse who cared for veterans, was being called an assassin, was being named as a domestic terrorist. And it's chilling to the American public that the people in charge of our federal government would lie this willingly, this casually. It's chilling that anyone who opposes this president or participates in organized protest is immediately labeled a terrorist. That's what happens in despotic, totalitarian countries. Anyone that opposes the regime is labeled a terrorist. That's not what's supposed to happen in the United States of America. And so the focus of this country right now is squarely on Minneapolis.

And by the way, there's a lot of ink spilled over the last 24 hours about the administration's 'de-escalation' in Minneapolis, substituting one leader for another. Tom Homan is not an avatar of reasonableness, listening and parsing the president's words as he tries to distance himself a little bit from the most outrageous things that people like Stephen Miller have said. But if you talk to our colleagues from Minnesota, they will tell you that nothing has changed. Today is just like yesterday in a nursery school. Today there's blinds down, recess canceled, signs on the door: "All of our staff have been vetted by ICE". We have no one illegal here. Kids don't know what's going on as they are ushered in by escorts to their nursery school classroom, they are made to feel like prisoners inside. Why? Because there are masked, armed men hunting them, and not hunting people who snuck into the country, hunting people who are here legally, who are here legally.

And I want you to understand that as much as we are watching Minneapolis, as much as we are feeling for those children locked in their nursery school classrooms today, fearing the bad men outside that are trying to take them away and send them to prison, it's not just Minneapolis.

Last week, I went down to Texas to inspect two facilities, one of which is entitled the baby prison, the baby jail. It's where they put the two-year-old kids. I didn't show up unannounced. I'm the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee that funds Homeland Security. We all have a constitutional right to do oversight, but I have the title, I have the responsibility, and I gave them a day and a half notice, and I was still denied entry. Why? Because they're hiding something. 30 people have died in ICE custody and detention in the last year. So instead, I went to a courtroom in San Antonio, an immigration courtroom, and I sat in on proceedings for a half a day, and what I saw was just absolutely outrageous. It's not on cameras. The country's not watching it like they're watching Minneapolis, but it's just as inhumane and it's just as illegal.

The people that show up to this courtroom in San Antonio are immigrants who are complying with the law. These are people who came to the United States, immediately applied for asylum. Many of them made an appointment through an official government website to show up and apply for asylum, and they have been showing up for all of their hearings and court appointments since. And so I would watch as these individuals or families walked in, went through their legal court proceedings, knowing outside that door were a half-dozen civilian plainclothed ICE officers waiting to disappear them. That's what happens in San Antonio. The individual who's here legally shows up as part of their court process. They walk out the door and they are grabbed by ICE, put on a bus that's waiting outside, and they are never to be seen from again. They go to one of these detention facilities. They are basically not allowed to see a lawyer. Sometimes their family doesn't even know where they are, and they are very quickly sent out of the country, either to the nation that they came from, where they rightfully fear potential violence, or to third countries. Families are split up.

While I was there, I was asked to accompany two young parents and their two year old daughter out of the courtroom to see if maybe, because they were talking to United States Senator ICE, wouldn't take them. A two year old! And the lawyer said, if you weren't here, one of two things was going to happen: that two-year-old was going to end up in jail with their parents, or they were going to separate the parents from the child, separate at least the father from the child. That's inhumane. That is wrong, and that is why people all across this country are demanding that if we are going to fund the Department of Homeland Security, we only fund a department that is acting lawfully and morally.

What we are asking is reasonable and impactful. What we are saying is that these roving patrols in Minneapolis, the profiling of people just based upon their skin color or their accent, the 'show me your papers' enforcement has to end. ICE and CBP are fundamentally not trained to do that kind of work, just roaming the streets trying to find people who they believe to be in the country illegally. We need warrants, and in fact, that has been the practice until this administration. The practice up until now had been that you had to get a warrant in order to try to lock up somebody who you believe to be here illegally. End the roving patrols. End the profiling.

Second, no more secret police. This is the United States of America. This is the United States of America. We don't allow in this country masked, unidentified men to be wandering up to you on the street and ripping you into a car. We need masks off. We need body cameras on. And lastly, we need accountability. Man, it looks like there was a crime committed. It looks like that was murder, but the only way you will know is if you have an impartial investigation and potentially prosecution, and that always happens at the state level. It can't be some whitewashed, secret process inside the Department of Homeland Security. No, our justice in the United States of America happens in public. It does not happen in private. We aren't Russia. We aren't Saudi Arabia. Justice is administered in a court of law through a process that people can see and that should apply to you whether you are an ICE officer or whether you are just a citizen of Minneapolis.

So think about what we're talking about here, really reasonable things that, frankly, should unite Republicans and Democrats. I have a much longer list of reforms that I want. The illegality is just off the charts of the Department of Homeland Security, but I understand that we are not going to be able to get common ground on that long list. And so what we endeavor to do is put on the table three things that we can find common ground on, that we must find common ground on, because to defend this for Republicans position over the rest of this week, into next week, to be no reforms, no changes in how ICE operates. It's unsustainable. It is not close to where the center of this country is. And so what we're talking about are three reasonable projects. Stop the roving patrols of our cities. No more secret police. And accountability. I believe that we can find a way to get that done.

And I know there's an instinct here, and we suffer from it too. If Democrats are for it, then Republicans just have to be against it. And if Republicans are for it, Democrats just have to be against it. I fall prey to that instinct. But this seems to be a moment where the country has just decided that what's happening in Minneapolis is wrong. The country would like us to come together on a series of reforms that will make it less likely that there will be another murder in cold blood of an American citizen, and right now, we are on a pace for it to happen again. ICE is still there. There are more ICE officers in Minneapolis than there are police officers. The police aren't even doing their job any longer, because all they do is respond to problems that are being created by untrained, unqualified ICE officers. I think we can find a way to come together on a set of reforms that the American people are demanding.

And I guess I draw my inspiration from that trip I took to Texas. So late one evening, I met with a group of families that had recently been detained, and they all had little kids, little kids that were in what they call baby jail. And I met with two boys, elementary school aged boys, about eight years old and 10 years old, that had been locked up for six weeks. Six weeks, these little kids have been locked up for nothing. They were complying with the law. They and their father were going through the legal process of applying for asylum. They were told to show up for court. Their mom dropped them off. Their backpacks for school were still in the backseat. The two young boys and their father went into the courtroom for their appointment that they were told to show up for and they never came back to the car. Their mom had no idea where they went. It ended up that they were in detention, that the little kids had been put in prison, and they called their mom every day as Christmas approached and said, 'Mom, maybe tomorrow they'll let us out. Maybe the next day, Christmas is coming up, Mom, I don't want to be here for Christmas.' Well, they stayed right through Christmas, and they didn't get out until just a week ago.

These children were alive on the outside, but you could tell they were dead on the inside. One of the two little boys, the older of them, sat during our time together, and he just stared straight ahead. He didn't make eye contact with anybody. His brain, you could tell, had been poisoned by the inhumanity that had been visited upon him by a policy that makes no sense other than for the purpose of torturing these kids. This is the United States of America. We shouldn't stand for that. You can enforce the laws of this nation without putting kids through that kind of hell, without the kids of Minneapolis today languishing in nursery schools with the doors locked, with no recess, with the shades down.

We were sitting around a round table and on the other side from the two dead-eyed children who had just left six weeks detention was another child. He looked about 10 to me. The two boys who were in detention told their mother in all those phone calls that maybe their greatest worry was that their friends were going to forget about them. "Mom, I've been here for a week. Mom, I've been here for two weeks. Mom, I've been here for six weeks. What if I go back to school and none of my friends remember who I am?" This is what goes through the brain of an eight year old who's been in jail, for nothing, for six weeks.

But you know what happened? Their friends didn't forget about them, that other little boy sitting on the other side of the round table, 10-years-old, he was one of their friends, and he noticed that his two friends were missing day after day after day, and he remembered that they were in immigration proceedings. And so, this 10-year-old boy went to his teacher and his mom and said, "I think something is wrong. I think my friends might have been taken." And the teacher and the mother reached out to a local legal aid agency, and that legal aid agency tracked down the boy and the father, and eventually the boy and the two boys and the father were let out.

That 10-year-old boy, their friend, had compassion. He believed in right versus wrong, but he also believed that he wasn't powerless. He believed that he could do something to help find his missing friends for him that was alerting adults, because he knew that maybe they would help. And I'm sure he was nervous about speaking up, about going to talk to his teacher, because doing the right thing often comes with risks, but to him, doing the right thing was worth the risk. To him, he knew he wasn't powerless in the face of the immorality that he feared had happened to his friends.

And I just tell you that story because it's a lesson for us. It's a lesson for us to not feel powerless; for Democrats to stand up for what we believe in, to not settle for less than a Department of Homeland Security that complies with the law. And a lesson for Republicans, who I know fear retribution by this president, when they stand up for what they believe is right rather than what Donald Trump says is right. We aren't powerless on the Democratic side, and you aren't powerless on the Republican side. We can find a way to come together and protect our citizens from an agency that is operating outside the bounds of the law and outside the bounds of morality.